TARQUINI GETS MAXIMUM BALLAST

SEAT Sport’s Gabriele Tarquini, who won the second race in Brno and is currently leading the Drivers’ Championship, will carry the maximum ballast on board his SEAT León TDI car during the next race meeting in Estoril.

The Italian driver collected 58 extra kilos for the points scored in the championship classification plus 25 for being the second best scorer in the Czech weekend. Therefore he is the first driver so far to receive the maximum 70-kg success ballast provided by the sporting regulations.

His competitors will be far lighter, with Alessandro Zanardi the best scoring driver in Brno, on 48 kg, only one more than his BMW Italy-Spain team-mate Félix Porteiro.

BMW Team UK's Andy Priaulx, the first non-SEAT driver in the championship, will receive 34 kg of ballast, while the heaviest Chevrolet car will be Alain Menu's with 33.

A total of twenty drivers will have success ballast in Estoril, including the race-by-race entries Alexander Lvov, Andrey Smetsky, Kristian Poulsen and Tom Boardman who will receive 30 kilos each according to article 79 c) of the Sporting Regulations.

Success ballast – Portugal

70 kg G. Tarquini

48 kg A. Zanardi

47 kg F. Porteiro

43 kg Y. Muller

42 kg A. Farfus

37 kg R. Rydell

34 kg A. Priaulx

33 kg A. Menu

31 kg J. Müller

30 kg J. Gené, A. Lvov, A. Smetsky, T. Boardman, K. Poulsen

27 kg R. Huff